Agartala: In a goodwill gesture, Bangladesh government has agreed to allow its territory for ferrying food grains and other essential commodities through Ashuganj port to landlocked Tripura, a top official said on Sunday.
“Bangladesh government has allowed transportation of food grains through Ashuganj port in their territory from Kolkata and the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has taken the initiative to bring the foodgrains using the water route which would cut off the distance and hassles of carrying the supply through the mountainous region by trucks,” said B K Roy, the Commissioner for Food and Civil Supplies.
“We would like to bring 5000 MT rice from Kolkata to Agartala via Ashuganj port bypassing the Assam-Agartala National Highway (NH-44)”, he told PTI.
While the distance between Agartala and Kolkata via Guwahati is 1650 km, it is just 350 km when it is transported through Bangladesh.
“Due to shortage of rail wagons, inadequate storage facilities and various other bottlenecks, the northeastern states have been suffering from poor supply of food grains, especially during the monsoon,” he said.
The northeastern states are largely dependent on supply of food grains from other states like Punjab and Haryana. Roy, however, assured that Tripura has sufficient buffer stock of two months for the rainy season which was created to avoid transport bottlenecks in the Public Distribution System (PDS).
The Centre has agreed provide Rs 25 crore to set up 16 godowns in Tripura for storing 10,000 MT of rice.
India had long been demanding transit and transshipment of goods for the landlocked north eastern region for shortening distance and smooth transportation.
The region has a 4,095 km long border with Bangladesh.
In the monsoon, road transport through Assam via Siliguri in West Bengal becomes extremely difficult due to the hilly terrain, landslide and the occassional flood. (PTI)
